The Episcopal Church regularly engages with the United Nations and other multilateral institutions as one way we carry out our public witness. In recent years, the G20, a group of countries who represent most of the world’s largest economies as well as the E.U. and the African Union, has had significant influence on global policy coordination regarding trade, the climate, health, and ongoing conflict. While we do not participate in these meetings, we track the outcomes to see how the international community is responding to global crises and developments. Below follows a summary of the key outcomes and initiatives of the recent meeting.
Representatives from across the globe met at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the end of November to discuss pressing global issues. The president of this G20 summit, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, set out three priorities: social inclusion and the fight against hunger and poverty, sustainable development, energy transitions and climate action, and the reform of global governance institutions.
In addressing global hunger, the G20 launched the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty to promote strategies such as cash transfers, development of homegrown school feeding programs, improving access to microfinance and the formal financial system, and social protection to fight poverty and hunger on a country-by-country basis. To address global financial inequalities, the summit promoted the G20 2023 Action Plan on Accelerating Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with clear allocation frameworks to support low-income and middle-income countries most in need.
The G20 2023 Action Plan on Accelerating Progress on the SDGs also addresses global climate goals through sustainable development. The SDGs are planned to be reached by 2030, but only 17% of them were on track before the G20 summit. The action plan outlined in the final communique aims to hold countries accountable for their sustainable development commitments and strive for more progress in the next six years.
To effectively pursue sustainability and prosperity, the G20 called for reforms for global governance institutions. Regarding the United Nations, these proposed reforms include increasing nominations of women candidates for president of the UN General Assembly and secretariat positions, strengthening the Peacebuilding Commission and the Economic and Social Council, and growing the Security Council to better represent underrepresented groups. The summit also outlined plans for the future of international financial architecture and trading systems for more inclusive economic growth also through the SDGs.
One important point that was emphasized in the summit’s final statement was the condemnation of “the use of force against any state’s territorial integrity and attacks on civilians and infrastructure” which many experts identify as an indirect message to President Putin and Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Overall, the G20 summit in Rio built upon the groundwork for climate finance from COP29 in Baku this year and connected sustainable development with greater financial equality efforts on a global scale. The Episcopal Church will continue to work with the U.S. government, the United Nations, and other entities to push for global rule of law and accountability, for action on climate change, and for other priorities, including the Sustainable Development Goals.